Martina Janková - Martinů: Songs (2019)

Folk songs are evidently one of the seminal sources of inspiration that Bohuslav Martin drew upon in his music. The composer would take Susil's extensive collection of traditional Moravian songs along with him wherever he travelled. The texts from the volume were used for the majority of the Songs on One Page, Songs on Two Pages and The New Chapbook. Just as Dvorák had done in his Moravian Duets, so Martin conceived his own tunes and accompaniment, yet his having been profoundly impacted by folk music, its rhythm, melody and harmonic techniques is palpable.
Created in the early 1940s, in the middle of World War II, during the composer's exile in the USA, the three song cycles represented for Martin and his compatriots a connection with their beleaguered homeland. Jan Masaryk, a Czech diplomat and a skilled amateur pianist, often performed the songs together with the soprano Jarmila Novotná, a MET soloist. Owing to their elliptical expression and modesty, the three cycles may serve as the clue to Martin's late works. The New Slovak Songs constitute a unique piece in the composer's oeuvre; he himself had collected them during his visit to Slovakia in 1920 and subsequently wrote for them piano accompaniments.Three renowned artists, bearing an authentic relation to folk music and Martin's work alike, have made a benchmark recording, in which they have succeeded in highlighting the songs tender beauty.

Tracklist:

01. Songs on One Page, H. 294: No. 1, Dew
02. Songs on One Page, H. 294: No. 2, Unlocked by a World
03. Songs on One Page, H. 294: No. 3, Riding to See My Love
04. Songs on One Page, H. 294: No. 4, The Footpath
05. Songs on One Page, H. 294: No. 5, At My Mother’s
06. Songs on One Page, H. 294: No. 6, The Dream of the Virgin Mary
07. Songs on One Page, H. 294: No. 7, Rosemary
08. Songs on Two Pages, H. 302: No. 1, The Moravian Girl
09. Songs on Two Pages, H. 302: No. 2, The Neighbour's Stable
10. Songs on Two Pages, H. 302: No. 3, Hope
11. Songs on Two Pages, H. 302: No. 4, The Night Watchman
12. Songs on Two Pages, H. 302: No. 5, Secret Love
13. Songs on Two Pages, H. 302: No. 6, The Wayside Cross
14. Songs on Two Pages, H. 302: No. 7, The Lads of Zvolen
15. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 1, My Mother, My Mother
16. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 2, Tell Me, Tell
17. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 3, What Are You Doing, Hanka:
18. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 4, Hey, Ye Hill
19. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 5, There’s Rain Coming from the Orava Region
20. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 6, Tell Me, My Most Beloved
21. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 7, I’ve Got Yet Another Sister
22. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 8, I Had a Blouse
23. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 9, The Evening Star
24. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 10, Hey, You Can Tell
25. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 11, I’ve Got Married
26. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 12, Eat Me, Wolves
27. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 13, A Lass Is Standing by the Tap
28. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 14, Up the Váh River
29. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 15, Up the Hron River
30. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 16, At the Trenčín Barracks
31. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 17, God, Oh God, What Am I to Do
32. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 18, Little Hana
33. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 19, Whose Sheep Are These
34. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 20, A Man Is All Right
35. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 21, Don’t You Trust Him
36. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 22, She Was Digging a Well
37. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 23, She Got Seventy Skirts
38. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 24, Lo, Meadow, Meadow
39. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 25, Lo, I Had a Lass
40. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 26, The White Dove
41. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 27, From Behind the Black Hill
42. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 28, The Folk Say
43. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 29, I Kept Waking Up
44. The Slovak Songs, H. 126: No. 30, The Lass from White Mountain
45. New Chap-Book, H. 288: No. 1, The Rich Sweetheart
46. New Chap-Book, H. 288: No. 2, Forsaken Love
47. New Chap-Book, H. 288: No. 3, Longing
48. New Chap-Book, H. 288: No. 4, The Inquisitive Girl
49. New Chap-Book, H. 288: No. 5, The Gay Girl
50. New Chap-Book, H. 288: No. 6, The Unhappy Lover
51. New Chap-Book, H. 288: No. 7, The Request
52. New Chap-Book, H. 288: No. 8, The High Steeple